Another League

June 21, 2007

Charles Arthur came up with a good idea the other day – although one that I’m sure was suggested in jest – a league table for PR’s and journalists. Works like this:

“If you’re not in the top league, you can’t pitch to national papers. You have to work your way up through the trades and so on. Like football – third division clubs don’t get to take on Chelsea or Man U or whatever. Fascinating idea. How do we implement it? Equally, of course, journos on trade papers and so on couldn’t ring up Max Clifford – but then, do they anyway?”

Now, I don’t know if anyone ever phones Max Clifford, and if they do I have no idea why, but what I do know is a good idea when I see one, and this is it. it would be great!

Imagine the scene – Charles being high profile ‘n’ all, would be talking to the top five all day – and I’d be talking to the International Journal of Cardboard Packaging Manufacturers – on a monthly basis.

What this particular idea highlights once again is the notion of status. That the size and “power” that a high profile agency has is reflective of the quality of the products that they’ll flog. It’s simply not true, at least not any more.

Let’s imagine an overseas client bringing a new product (or more likely a new version of an existing product) to the UK market, he will be face with an army of tech PR agencies vying for the right to promote its wares. The choice for the client is between the influence that agency x carries, and the retainer that agency y is asking for. If we add the league table to this equation then the lightweights are blown out of the water and the middleweights are once again scrapping on activity for the pieces.

I’m a long-standing reader of Technology Guardian, and I hope that one day I’ll work for an agency big enough and prestigious enough that I’ll be allowed to call Charles and pitch a client to him that he’s not already aware of – although I’m worried that because I work for the big agency, he’ll already know about my client, whereas while I was at the little agency I wasn’t allowed to call Charles and pitch a client that he hadn’t heard of.

Am I the only one not looking forward to a time when Charles’ writing becomes samey and dull, because he’s too far up the food chain to get news from the plankton of the PR world…?

Hey Charles, does this mean I’m big time now?
No hang on, this is just my blog, so I guess it doesn’t count. Rymans league.
Still – Charles Arthur commented on my post!! I must have made it (somewhere)!